Staying in hotel

That's the simplest available option, but there are limitations. One - believe it or not, you (foreigner) just can't get a room by entering any hotel's lobby, coming to reception and asking for the room. That's official, only Sibir hotel (see below the details) is allowed to accept foreigners without prior paperwork. If you want by any reason stay in other hotel (closer to your office, better prices, whatever) your company or the entity that you're visiting on your business trip (or inviting family) should issue you a letter of invitation type of a document which should be registered in local passport desk and then brought to the hotel of your choice. It is really hard to believe that the fourth largest city in Russia, packed with foreigners and tourists has such stupid local legislaton.

Second limitation is that some hotels use the Soviet-time pricing model which tells to charge nearly double rate off the foreigners. We just refuse to comment on that, or the kids shouldn't be allowed to read this.

Ok, now about the hotels themselves. Three largest and probably the best ones are Sibir, Novosibirsk and Centralnaya. Sibir and Novosibirsk hotel are very convenient if you come to Novosibirsk by train, they're very close to railway station. Centralnaya's advantage is that it is located in the very centre of the city.

River Park hotel: +7 (800) 200-96-66, located at Dobrolyubova, 2. Their website is http://www.riverpark.ru and you can book directly there as it is their English version. And we really recommend this one hotel. The truth is that they're the only large independent hotel left in the city, the rest are parts of the hotel chains and frankly they're all the same. This one hotel obviously has to find its way to win somehow, and so far their idea is to provide better service. They have really nice and attentive staff, and we tell you their breakfast (provided for free, complimentary to the room) is absolutely gorgeous and best in town.

Sibir hotel: +7 (383) 223-02-03, 223-07-29, 223-12-15, 223-87-66, located at Lenina str., 21.

Novosibirsk hotel: +7 (383) 220-11-20, 221-65-17, 221-65-33, located at Vokzalnaya Magistral, 1.

Centralnaya hotel: +7 (383) 222-72-94, 222-76-60, located at Lenina str., 3.

Renting an apartment

Another option for you if you want to live closer to your office, or staying for quite a long period so paying hotel fares wouldn't be wise, is to rent an apartment.

First of all, people here lives mostly in apartment buildings, private houses are occupied by either poor people (terrible living conditions) or by rich people (great living conditions), but they don't provide houses for rent, so you probably would find only flats available for rent.

Apartments here are measured in terms of all rooms, not bedrooms, so when you read 'two-room apartment' it means exactly two rooms: hall and bedroom, or hall could be converted into bedroom (kitchen doesn't count - all flats have it.)

Hotel rule of 'foreigners charged double' doesn't apply for apartments, but usually landlords will rise their price for foreigners just because they think you can afford it anyway.

Most important issue with renting a flat is that landlords mostly don't care about the product they offer, so you'll have to spend some time finding 'decent' apartment. Usually flats are provided without furniture or with just very basic one, so you'll need to look through some of them to find good one. One-room apartment in the centre of the city will cost starting from 7000 Roubles (around 300 dollars) per month. Decent apartment in the centre of the city with good furniture might cost 500 dollars and higher.

Finding apartment for rent is not easy if you don't speak Russian, so interpreter or Russian colleague will be of help. Apart from language problems, the rest is easy - newspapers are full of apartment-for-rent advertisings.

If you have any comments, suggestions, ideas, please email us. Your feedback is very important.

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